CHAPTER 6
Learning
CONCEPTS AND EXERCISES
Learning in Advertising
Completing this exercise should help you to achieve Learning Objectives 3, 4, 11, 13, 18, and 20.
Advertising is all around you: television, magazines, radio, billboards, pencils, the backs of cabs, matchbooks, just about anywhere you look. The people who create these ads often use learning principles to persuade you to buy their products. In the following exercise, you are the ads’ creator. It is your job to tell your boss the learning principle behind each of the following ad descriptions. Choose from the list at the end of each exercise. Answers may be used more than once or not at all.
Television spot, thirty seconds.
(Scene: The counter at a Brand X dry cleaner. An anxious-looking woman enters carrying a yellow dress with chocolate stains on it.)
Customer: I need to have this dress cleaned by noon.
Counter clerk: Don’t worry; it’ll be ready at noon.
Customer: I hope so. I really have to have the dress by noon.
Counter clerk: We’ll have it by noon. No problem.
(Shift of scene: customer is at home, smiling as she talks on the phone.)
Customer: Hi. I dropped a dress off there earlier—to be ready at noon. Can I pick it up now?
(Pause. Customer’s smile abruptly turns to a frown.)
Narrator: Why take chances? Speedy Dry Clean guarantees that your clothes will always be ready on time.
1. This is an example of ______conditioning.
2. The dress failing to be ready illustrates the use of ______for the behavioral response of using a dry-cleaning service other than Speedy.
3. The service guarantee that states, “Your clothes will always be ready on time” is an example of a(n) ______reinforcement schedule.
4. How many times do you think Speedy Dry Clean can break the service guarantee before its customers will go to another dry cleaner? ______
a. Operant
b. Positive reinforcement
c. Negative reinforcement
d. Punishment
e. Classical
f. Conditioned stimulus
g. Conditioned response
h. Unconditioned stimulus
i. Unconditioned response
j. Extinction
k. Continuous
l. Fixed interval
m. Once
n. Ten times
o. One hundred times
Learning in Advertising
Completing this exercise should help you to achieve Learning Objective 3.
Television spot, thirty seconds.
(Scene: Mother checking on sleeping child. Mother speaks very quietly.)
Mother: Jennifer went to the doctor today to get the stitches taken out of her knee. Before we went to the Stone Clinic, just mentioning the word doctor made her cry for fear of getting a shot. But the doctors and nurses at the Stone Clinic understand a child’s needs; they’re gentle, soothing, kind, and thoughtful. That makes Jennifer happy. I know that the Stone Clinic staff are experts in their fields, and as a mother (mother looks lovingly at Jennifer) that makes me very happy.
(Mother leans over, smoothes Jennifer’s hair, kisses her on the forehead, and tiptoes out of room.)
1. This is an example of ______conditioning.
2. The doctors are a(n) ______.
3. Jennifer’s old fear of doctors is a(n) ______.
4. What conditioning process caused Jennifer to lose her fear of doctors? ______
a. Instrumental
b. Positive reinforcement
c. Negative reinforcement
d. Punishment
e. Classical
f. Conditioned stimulus
g. Conditioned response
h. Unconditioned stimulus
i. Unconditioned response
j. Extinction
k. Continuous
l. Fixed interval
m. Once
n. Ten times
o. One hundred times
Teaching an Alien
Completing this exercise should help you to achieve Learning Objectives 7, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 24, and 26.
To discover the prevalence of learning in our everyday lives, read the following story of Sam and Gufla, an alien. You will find many of the basic learning principles embedded in the plot. Afterward, answer the questions using the list of terms at the end of the exercise. Answers may be used more than once.
One day while playing in the park, Sam met someone he thought was a boy his own age. Thinking the boy was human, Sam began a conversation. Even though the stranger spoke perfect English, Sam soon realized that he was from another planet and had landed here by accident. Eight-year-old Sam was more curious than afraid and invited the alien home for dinner.
The trip home was eventful. Sam, worried about being late, decided to take a shortcut that one of his pals had told him about earlier. As the two boys entered a backyard, a snarling German shepherd charged them. Sam quickly figured out that the dog’s chain could not reach to the fence. He and the alien, whom he had named Gufla, ran along the fence until they were out of the yard.
After slowing down and catching his breath, Sam realized that he would have to tell Gufla a few things about the family and how to behave, so that Sam’s mother would not suspect anything. Most important, Sam knew that he could not share his discovery with his sister, who would tell his mother.
Gufla asked Sam what eating felt like. How would he recognize food? Sam replied that anything that smelled good was edible. Gufla promptly picked a rose from a garden they were passing and ate it. Sam laughed, but Gufla was holding his stomach because the rose, which had fertilizer on it, made him feel ill. Gufla vowed never to go near a rose again.
Sam told Gufla that any time Sam nodded his head, Gufla could eat whatever his fork was touching. Any time Sam shook his head, Gufla was not to eat whatever his fork was touching. Sam tried to explain that food, not napkins or salt and pepper shakers, tastes good, which is a pleasant feeling. By the time they reached Sam’s driveway, Sam realized that there was not enough time to teach Gufla all the behaviors he would need to know, so Sam told Gufla to imitate Sam’s behavior whenever he felt confused. Sam said that because it was Friday night, his mother might let them stay up and watch the late-night horror movie, a special treat, if all went well.
1. Sam’s mother had probably successfully used ______to decrease his tardiness.
2. Sam was using a ______to follow a shortcut home. This was also a case of ______,because Sam had never taken this shortcut before, even though he had known about it before that day.
3. Sam decided not to tell his sister about his find. This illustrates ______. Sam did not want his sister to tell his mother about Gufla.
4. Gufla became ill after eating the rose, probably because it had fertilizer on it. This is an example of learning a ______.
5. Gufla knew that the direction in which Sam moved his head would be a ______because this would let Gufla know if what he put in his mouth (the behavior) would taste good or bad. Good food in this case is a ______.
6. Gufla will watch and imitate what Sam does even though he will not really understand why he is doing it or if it will bring him any sort of pleasure. This is an example of ______.
7. Sam and Gufla may be allowed to watch a late-night movie if they behave well at dinner. This illustrates the use of a ______.
a. Primary
b. Secondary
c. Avoidance conditioning
d. Escape conditioning
e. Punishment
f. Positive reinforcer
g. Taste aversion
h. Discriminative stimulus
i. Observational learning
j. Cognitive map
k. Latent learning